-Sharika Anjum & Ashraful Bashar
Evolving music tastes throughout the world brings a lot of new innovative emerging singers and music artists. The talent they were suppressing is now being able to be unleashed by the recent change in taste in music of our youth. A type of change that has shifted the whole paradigm of Bangladeshi music industry. Lo-fi alternative music has never been tried before in the context of Bangla songs. The type of music that cannot be even put in a box of music genres. These songs fit snugly onto us like a warm blanket on a cold night or the rain that is calming you to sleep.
A talented hidden bedroom artist emerged with a new era of music in Bangladesh. Barney Sku, a 19-year-old who started producing music just a few years back has gained immense recognition. Recently, he has been featured on BBC radio. There are a lot of artists who dream and crave that their songs may be streamed internationally by a huge media. Barney achieved that by featuring his new song “Kothay” on BBC radio which had an astounding response. While talking to him about it, he says: “It was amazing and overwhelming."
Barney was born into a musical family and picked up the guitar from his father. He started producing music in 2017 on a FL Studio software and gradually evolved to song-writing. Talking about his genres he does a bit of EDM but he mostly does Hip-Hop and Lo-fi. Loving what he does he wants to experiment with every genre. He also remixes old songs with a new style like he did for ‘Aaj Raate Kono Rupkotha Nei’ by making it a trap mix.
Every musician has a different approach to making songs using various techniques. For Barney: he first starts making a beat and then comes up with a melody. He writes lyrics from his own experiences as a person. Powerfully written lyrics can easily refresh the memory of the past while revealing the songwriter's own thoughts. For the instruments he makes songs with; he uses guitar and for other types of sound, he uses digital instruments from a software. He also makes songs with different languages together.
Sometimes a musical vision can only be completed by working with other artists, in that way we can get to know newer talents as well. He also tried a new genre of music like EDM for his song ‘SRITI’ with ‘IXIO’. If you are writing songs, you might think it would be more perfect with a different voice or different style, seeking out other artists to work with can help you perfect your vision and produce better work.
We always go back to our old favourite songs that make us think about the good old days. But there is a serious lack of experimentation in Bangladeshi Music industry. Barney stresses on needing a serious change in this industry with our new generation. Stepping it up and creating a wholly new different type of Bangla music for us. He also plans on releasing an entire album of Bangla songs. Maybe the older generations will also start liking the type of music he makes.
Starting anything can cause hesitation and nervousness as we don’t know how we are going to end up. Especially in Bangladesh, lack of support and resources drive people to believe that their music won't deliver any results. On that note, Barney advises other people who want to start producing music; to not hesitate. Ask for help from people who are already producing a bit of music, learn from other people. Keep on trying and you will get better. Just keep at it and don’t give up!
Hobbies take us out of our everyday monotony and give us a chance to be passionate about something. Students are epitome of trying to innovate an element through what they love. There are a lot of talented people in Bangladesh but the people here give less importance to recreation. Their gifts are buried like a treasure. Barney gives out a lot of tips and techniques which will flourish a student's day to day life. He emphasises on the fact that how important it is to have hobbies and keep yourself busy. Come up with something you like doing and get good at it. Keep practicing. Scheduling, having a routine and loving doing something besides studying; he stresses on these things.
When asked about whether he wants to pursue music as a career, he tells us definitely. He started making music because he loved it. But as he kept flourishing and improving, he made sure to pursue it. Support from the people who have been listening to him has been also a huge inspiration for him. The need for a studio and instrument can be a lot of pain for small artists which can make them think they cannot enter such a daunting industry. But the new bedroom pop has emerged as a music movement fuelled by online platforms, easy access to high-quality music software and algorithmically driven recommendation systems. Barney proved that you can do it too.
Here's the link to his album!
Some of our favourite songs from the interviewing team that we highly recommend and you most likely should listen to (though you should listen to all its heavenly):
-“Kothay”
-“Premer Ghurnijhor”
-“Sriti” with IXI0
-“Your eyes” with Taqiya Zaman
-“When She Loves Me” with Taqiya Zaman
So well written!! Loved it :)